With investors clamoring for more, Blooom raises $9.15 million

Feb06, 2017

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One of the area’s top startups, finance tech firm Blooom has landed a significant round of financing to accelerate its online tool to boost users’ retirement savings.

The firm announced Monday that it raised $9.15 million in an oversubscribed Series B round that features some behemoths in finance tech investing.

The round was co-led by existing Blooom investors QED, based in Alexandria, Virginia, and San Francisco-based Commerce Ventures. It also snagged investments from Allianz Life Ventures and Nationwide Ventures, as well as TTV Capital, the KCRise Fund, Industry Ventures and UMB. The Series B brings Blooom’s total raised to about $13.15 million.

Blooom CEO Chris Costello said that he was thrilled to have garnered not only significant interest but also a strong roster of investors.

“We are grateful to have had the opportunity to handpick some of the nation’s smartest fintech investors, who will help us in Blooom’s mission to help a large segment of underserved Americans manage their retirement savings,” Costello said in a release. “This Series B will allow us to reach hundreds of thousands of hard-working people across this country who have never received help with what may end up being their single most important financial asset: their 401k or 403b.”

Blooom also now has more than $500 million in assets under management, which the company said makes it one of the fastest independent robo-advisors ever to reach the half-billion-dollar mark. The firm surpassed the $300 million in AUM in June.

Costello added that Blooom is proud to be a Midwestern grown firm in Kansas City.

“We aim to show the nation how a Kansas City company — with a team not focused on a ‘quick exit’, but rather a laser focus on doing right by clients and building an enduring financial services brand — can begin to move the needle on the retirement savings epidemic in this country,” he said.